How much electricity does a fridge freezer use per day in the UK?
A typical UK fridge freezer uses about 0.71 kilowatt hours a day, which costs 18.5p at the current Ofgem cap rate of 26.11p per kWh, or £5.61 a month. An efficient model rated at 200 kilowatt hours a year drops to 14.3p a day, and an old one rated at 450 kilowatt hours costs 32.2p.
Why there is no wattage on a fridge freezer
A fridge freezer never draws a steady load. The compressor kicks in when the cabinet warms up, runs for a few minutes and stops again, and a frost free model adds a small heater that clears the evaporator on a timer. Any single wattage figure would be wrong most of the day.
That is why the energy label quotes kilowatt hours a year, measured under a standard test. Beko rates the CNG4692V, a 317 litre frost free fridge freezer in class E, at 258 kilowatt hours a year. Across the UK market most full size units land between 200 and 450 kilowatt hours, with the older and the larger American style units at the top of that range.
Your own label is on the inside wall of the fridge or in the manual, and it beats every estimate on any website, including this one.
One warning about the test behind the label. It is run at a fixed room temperature with the doors closed, so a fridge freezer in a warm kitchen that gets opened twenty times a day will use more than the label says. Treat the label as a fair way to rank two appliances rather than a promise about your own bill, and expect your real figure to sit a little above it in summer.
The sum, worked in full
Take 258 kilowatt hours a year and divide by 365. That gives 0.71 kilowatt hours a day. Multiply by the Ofgem cap rate of 26.11 pence and the answer is 18.5p a day.
Scale it up from there. A week is £1.29, a month is £5.61, and a year is £67.36. Divide the daily figure by twenty four and you get 0.77p an hour, which is the number to use if you are trying to work out what a fridge costs while you are away.
Work it out for your own fridge freezer
Type in the wattage from the plate on the back, then your own unit rate. The numbers update as you type.
The calculator is prefilled with 29 watts across twenty four hours, because that is what 258 kilowatt hours a year averages out to. Your compressor draws far more than 29 watts while it runs, and nothing at all for the rest of the day.
What it costs by energy label figure
| Rated kWh a year | Per day | Per week | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200, efficient modern unit | 14.3p | £1.00 | £4.35 | £52.22 |
| 258, typical 317 litre frost free | 18.5p | £1.29 | £5.61 | £67.36 |
| 300, larger or American style | 21.5p | £1.50 | £6.53 | £78.33 |
| 450, old or poorly sealed unit | 32.2p | £2.25 | £9.79 | £117.50 |
| Appliance | Typical draw | Usage we assume | Per hour (UK) | Per usage (UK) | Per month (UK) | Per hour (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fridge freezer | 258 kWh a year | per year, compressor cycling included | 0.77p | £67.36 | £5.61 | 0.54 cents |
Rates: Ofgem cap 1 July to 30 September 2026 at 26.11p per kWh (source), EIA residential average June 2026 at 18.34 cents per kWh (source). Checked 2026-09-22.
For readers in the United States, 0.71 kilowatt hours a day costs 13.0 cents at the EIA residential average of 18.34 cents per kilowatt hour, which is $47.32 across the year. In California at 34.74 cents the same appliance costs 24.6 cents a day, and in Texas at 15.94 cents it costs 11.3 cents.
Six things that change your daily figure
- Set the fridge to five degrees and the freezer to minus eighteen. Colder settings than that keep food no safer and the compressor runs longer to hold them.
- Leave a gap behind the unit. The condenser coils at the back have to dump heat into the room, and a cabinet pushed flat against the wall traps it.
- Vacuum the coils once a year. Dust acts as insulation on the one part of the appliance that is meant to lose heat.
- Check the door seal with a piece of paper. If it pulls out without any drag, the seal has hardened and cold air is leaking out all day.
- Let hot food cool on the side before it goes in. A warm dish makes the compressor work through everything it just cooled.
- Keep the freezer side reasonably full and the fridge side less so. Frozen food holds cold, while a packed fridge blocks the airflow the fan needs.
- Use the holiday setting before a fortnight away rather than switching the whole appliance off. Emptying the fridge, running the freezer alone and leaving the fridge door ajar saves more than it sounds, and it avoids coming home to a wet floor.
Fridge freezer against a separate chest freezer
Households thinking about extra freezer space usually compare the two, so here are both numbers. The 317 litre fridge freezer costs £5.61 a month. A 298 litre chest freezer rated at 231 kilowatt hours a year costs £5.03 a month for freezer space alone.
Running one appliance instead of two is clearly cheaper, and £10.64 a month for a fridge freezer plus a chest freezer is the price of that extra capacity. Whether it earns its keep comes down to how you shop. A chest freezer that lets you buy in bulk and cook in batches pays for itself, while one holding a bag of peas and a mystery container is sixty pounds a year of storage.
The other comparison worth making is with your own appliance. If your fridge freezer is fifteen years old and rated at 450 kilowatt hours, replacing it saves about £50 a year, so a £400 replacement takes eight years to pay for itself on energy alone. Replace it when it fails, not because a sales page told you the new one is efficient.
Common questions
How much does it cost to run a fridge freezer for 24 hours?
A 317 litre frost free model rated at 258 kilowatt hours a year uses 0.71 kilowatt hours in a full day, which is 18.5p at the cap rate of 26.11p per kWh. Over a week that is £1.29 and over a month it is £5.61.
How much does it cost to run a fridge freezer per hour?
About 0.77p an hour, taken as an average across the day. The compressor does not run continuously, so the hourly figure is the daily total divided by twenty four rather than a measurement of the motor while it is working.
Do old fridge freezers use a lot of electricity?
Yes, and the difference is large enough to notice. A unit rated at 450 kilowatt hours a year costs £117.50 to run against £67.36 for a modern 258 kilowatt hour model, so the old appliance costs about £50 a year more for the same food.
How much electricity does a fridge freezer use in a year?
Between 200 and 450 kilowatt hours for most UK models, with 258 kilowatt hours a fair figure for a full size frost free unit. In money that is £52.22 to £117.50 a year at the current cap rate.